Summertime Writing: Sherlock Holmes

For this post, I want to take a few old Sherlock Holmes sentences and work with them through sentence, meaning, and word study. This material will be based on material 100 years old.

Source Material
This is the first paragraph in the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Adventure I. Scandal in Bohemia

To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one in particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen; but, as a lover, he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer.

First of all, like almost all of Sherlock Holmes, the POV is Dr. John H. Watson—the narrator.

1. Kernel Sentences

Next, I'll list the kernel sentences.

She is the women.
I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.
She eclipses her sex.
It wasn't that he felt love for Irene Adler.
All emotions were abhorrent to his mind.
He was the perfect reasoning and observing machine.
He would have placed himself in a false position.
He never spoke of the softer passion.
They were admirable things.

2. Word Dive

Then, I'll pick out certain words that I would like to look up and explore.

eclipse

\E*clipse"\, n. [F. ['e]clipse, L. eclipsis, fr. Gr. ?, prop., a forsaking, failing, fr. ? to leave out, forsake; ? out + ? to leave. See {Ex-}, and {Loan}.]

PIE - leikw; To leave.

Def. To obscure, darken, or extinguish the beauty, luster, honor, etc., of; to sully; to cloud; to throw into the shade by surpassing.
eclipse, n.: obscuration, darkness. [outshine].

eclipse, V. t: obscure, darken. 

predominate

\Pre*dom"i*nate\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Predominated}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Predominating}.] [Pref. pre- + dominate: cf. F. pr['e]dominer.] 

PIE - dem, House, household.

To be superior in number, strength, influence, or authority; to have controlling power or influence; to prevail; to rule; to have the mastery; as, love predominated in her heart.

\Pre*dom"i*nate\, v. t. To rule over; to overpower. [R.]

predominate, v. i.: control, pre-

predomination: control. 

sex

\Sex\, n. [L. sexus: cf. F. sexe.]
{The sex}, the female sex; women, in general.
sex, n. sexuality (rare), persuasion (jocular), gender (jocular).

seldom

\Sel"dom\, a.
Rare; infrequent. [Archaic.]
seldom: inf recently.

akin

\A*kin"\, a. [Pref. a- (for of) + kin.] 

1. Of the same kin; related by blood; -- used of persons; as, the two families are near akin. 

2. Allied by nature; partaking of the same properties; of the same kind. 

``A joy akin to rapture.'' --Cowper.

particularly

\Par*tic"u*lar*ly\, adv. 

1. In a particular manner; expressly; with a specific reference or interest; in particular; distinctly. 

2. In an especial manner; in a high degree; as, a particularly fortunate man; a particularly bad failure.

particular, a. 1. special, especial (equiv. of "special," but archaic in this sense), specific; spec, restricted; see definite.
Antonyms: see miscellaneous, general.

abhorrent

\Ab*hor"rent\, a. [L. abhorens, -rentis, p. pr. of abhorrere.] 

1. Abhorring; detesting; having or showing abhorrence; loathing; hence, strongly opposed to; as, abhorrent thoughts. 

The persons most abhorrent from blood and treason. --Burke. 

The arts of pleasure in despotic courts I spurn abhorrent. --Clover. 

2. Contrary or repugnant; discordant; inconsistent; -- followed by to. 

``Injudicious profanation, so abhorrent to our stricter principles.'' --Gibbon. 

3. Detestable. 

``Pride, abhorrent as it is.'' --I. Taylor.

admirably

\Ad"mi*ra*ble\, a. [L. admirabilis: cf. F. admirable.] 

1. Fitted to excite wonder; wonderful; marvelous. [Obs.]

gibe

\Gibe\, n. 

An expression of sarcastic scorn; a sarcastic jest; a scoff; a taunt; a sneer.

sneer

\Sneer\, n. 

1. The act of sneering. 

2. A smile, grin, or contortion of the face, indicative of contempt; an indirect expression or insinuation of contempt. 

''Who can refute a sneer?'' --Raley.

sneer: smile, laugh, jeer, snicker: laugh.

sneering: smiling, contemptuous.

Rewriting in my own way to interpret meaning

To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have rarely heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she diminishes and rules over other women. It wasn't that he felt any emotion similar to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one in particular, were strongly opposed to his cold, precise, but wonderfully balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen; but, as a lover, he would have placed himself in a situation where he might act against his own principles or interests. He never spoke of romance, save with a sarcastic scorn, taunt, jest, and a sneer. Love interests were admirable things for the observer.

Sentence Imitation

To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman.
To Frodo Baggins he is always the wizard.
To Harry Potter he is always the wizard.
To Harry Potter she is always the wizard.
To Robin Hood she is always the woman.
To Victor Frankenstein he is always the monster.

I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.
I have seldom seen him look at her in any other way.
I have rarely seen him touch her in any other manner.
I have often heard her speak about him when she is in unpredictable moods—anger, jealousy, and even hatred.

In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.
Under her watchful care, he eclipses and dominates all other men.
In her opinion in terms of writing ability, she is beyond and far superior to any other literature student.

It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. 
It wasn't that she felt emotion akin to disgust for Billy Bob.
It was not like he thought anything bad about Creed.

All emotions, and that one in particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind.
All opinions, and especially the ones coming from her, were unbelievable to his skeptical mind.

He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen; but, as a lover, he would have placed himself in a situation where he might act against his own principles or interests.
She was, in my view, the most beautiful woman that the world has ever seen; but, if he were her boyfriend, he would have placed him in a compromising love triangle situation.

He never spoke of romance, save with a sarcastic scorn, taunt, jest, and a sneer. 
She had never worked a job with him, save safely and distantly.

They were admirable things for the observer.
Smartphone are essential tools for millennials.

Analysis of Writing Exercises

This was a fun exercise which I'm taking away a few new writing tools and ideas inspired from one of the great 19th and 20th century writers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

“We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination.” — Sherlock Holmes

Summertime Writing: Freestyle Nouns & Word Qualities

With three flash fiction stories finished, I can get back to summertime writing.

In the first four summertime writing posts, the source for the exercises was the Spellbinding Sentences put out by Writer's Digest by Barbara Baig. I tried to personalize the exercises so that they are original content for this blog.

In this exercise, I want to combine two sources for the exercise. The first also comes from S.S. chapter 6 on the Qualities of Words. In the chapter it mentions words that are formal vs informal, general vs specific, and abstract vs concrete. A fun exercise to do is to mix this with an exercise that I read in another book, 90 Days to Your Novel by Sarah Domet. In day 1 exercise Ready, Set, Go (With What You Know), the author challenges the writer to brainstorm from early memories people, places, and things. Instead of 2 hours, I will do a short version.

Brainstorm Nouns

People: Old grandfather was very crafty, school bully that class stood up against, inventive friend that doesn't trust anyone, deliverer, acquaintance that likes physical activities, art teacher that is very old and yet stylish, a two-faced person, brother.

Places: fragmented hometown, desert oasis, vine infested jungle, in the middle of a hurricane, standing on a pier smelling the scent of seawater and hearing the sound of waves hit the support, on a bicycle, canoeing down a river, on an exercise bicycle.

Things: watch, pencil, computer, paper, led light, dice, hometown football shirt, fast racecar, canoe, yellow one-person tent, old pad of paper that is almost used up, the sound of fall maple leaves blowing in a strong wind outside the room window, van.

Analysis of Nouns

The first thing that I realized while typing these up was that for people and places were easier to make specific, for me, than things. Towards the end of making the list of things, I consciously shifted into trying to make more specific things. I also notice that my mind was blank at first and then I just started to list things in my vacinity. The "sound of fall maple leaves..." was a memory, however.

In this brainstorm, I did not list any proper nouns even though several of the nouns do have proper noun names.

The hometown football shirt could be a jersey, but when I wrote it I was wearing a t-shirt with the teams name on it.

Many of the longer written words and phrases do have a more emotional connection with me compared to the single or general words.

I do need a few abstract nouns. I'll do that now. time, challenge, understanding, effort, growth.

Next posts

This post will probably serve as a foundation for several posts because both books have further exercises reusing these initial collections of words.